US MLS plans to seduce Lionel Messi and make him his best seller

It is known Paris Saint-Germain is, for now, the only alternative that is in the head of Lionel Messi beyond June 30, 2023. Despite the premature and painful removal in the current edition of the Champions League and of all ungodly criticism that it rains on him every time he plays and the results are not good, the priority of the captain of the Argentina national team happen to hear the economic and sporting proposal that Nasser Al Khelaifi, owner of the club, and company will do it to Jorge Messi, dad and crack representative, in the next few days. From that moment on, after that speech remained pending, Leo will hold the key to his future in his possession.

AND there are two ways. If you like the proposal from Qatar and it fits, Messi will certainly continue another season in Ligue 1 together with Kylian Mbappe and Neymar? And end of story. On the other hand, if the negotiations go cold and the roads start to fork, Messi has as a priority to continue in Europe with the idea of ​​reaching a competitive team that allows it to be a protagonist on a continental level. Having unlocked that desired level of winning the World Cup that unforgettable December 18 at the Lusail stadium, the Argentine’s big goal is to raise the bar orejonathat trophy systematically denied since 2015.

The problem is that the universe of teams with possible pretensions to become kings of the continent, without PSG and without FC Barcelona, ​​​​is significantly reduced. Between salary limits, financial fair play and the shortage of friendly places for a new family move, the scenario is becoming increasingly complex. There will be no overbids. And for this on the other side of the Atlantic, in the United States, they are already starting to prepare a master plan to try and get the services of one of the most important footballers in history.

There are several ingredients that help. Beyond the fact that nothing compares to the warmth of home in the convulsive Rosario nor to his totally reconciled life in his adopted Casteldefels, on the outskirts of Barcelona, ​​it has been revealed on more than one occasion that Messi sees the United United as a probable destination once I no longer have or feel that voracity to be the best of the best. On the other hand, the North American giant will be an epicenter of football in the next three years with the Copa América which will be held in 2024 and with the World Cup which it will share in 2026 with Mexico and Canada. That’s where the pieces begin, almost without wanting to, to fit together.

Messi, according to the point of view of American businessmen, will become -if he accepts the invitation- in the visible face and best possible seller of those two mega-events. It would also allow him to make a huge leap in quality to the Major League Soccer (MLS)a league that never stops growing and that in turn continues to take off in super competitive professional sports in the United States, with the NFL (American football), MLB (baseball), NBA (basketball) and even the NHL (hockey on ice) as main opponents.

The $2.5 billion injection that came from the recent deal with Apple TV in exchange for exclusive television rights to the competition for the next ten years, it would provide the league with liquidity to tempt Messi, even above the power of Middle Eastern petrodollars. The only limit would be salary restrictions, given that each franchise has a maximum of three players who can be paid a salary that exceeds the limit established by the league. But this, they estimate, can be fixed.

Inter Miami, owned by Cuban entrepreneur Jorge Más Santos and former English footballer David Beckham, is the team making the most efforts to get Messi. Leo, who typically chooses Florida as an occasional vacation destination — as well as being a place where the family business has some of its real estate ventures — has already been questioned on several occasions. However, so far, the answer has been a friendly “not yet.”

However, they don’t give up from Inter. “It has become Jorge Más Santos’ priority”assured Jerome Meary, a players’ agent who usually acts as a bridge between Europe and MLS, in statements to the French newspaper The Team. The representative assures that the calls intensified during the World Cup in Qatar.

Who is Jorge Mas Santos? Son of Jorge Más Canosa, an anti-Castro Cuban businessman who made his fortune with the MasTec company -offering engineering, construction, installation, maintenance and upgrade services for energy infrastructure, utilities and communications-.

Más Santos inherited the empire from his father, who died in 1997, and later began investing part of his fortune in the world of sports. In addition to Inter Miami, in which he holds 90% of the shares, Más Santos owns the Real Zaragozaa history of Spanish football which is currently in the Second Division.

This all-powerful businessman thinks he can emulate what MLS did when it added its current partner to the ranks of the competition. He Spice boy He arrived there in 2007 to join the ranks of Los Angeles Galaxy, very close to Hollywood, and remained there for six seasons – with a stopover at Milan in Italy – before ending his career at PSG. Then, the prodigious Englishman signed a contract worth around 30 million dollars a year which allowed the American league to reassess itself with one of the great stars of world football.

The idea now is to emulate Beckham’s plan with Messi. But instead of the Pacific and the glamor of Beverly Hills nearby, the setting could be the Atlantic and all the Latin influence of Miami. The main problem is that Leo, if he agrees, will be far from the center of world football. It would be, as happened with the forced exile of Cristiano Ronaldo in Saudi Arabia, an early withdrawal. A kind of winter quarter. Is the time right?

That’s why MLS has another card up its sleeve. As requested by the site The Athletica site specialized in the analysis of news and sporting events, The idea is also to offer Messi the possibility of owning a franchise. As with Michael Jordan in the NBA -he is the main shareholder of the Charlotte Hornets-, the Flea could be the owner of a team in a combo that includes the possibility of expanding into other areas of the huge US market.

For now, this is all part of a project. A sort of American dream – a chimera – that can start to take shape if what Messi doesn’t want to happen for now happens, that is, being left without a place to be happy and competitive in Europe.